Even in incognito mode, Chrome collects data on the sites visited. A practice which should soon end since Google, caught by American justice, has undertaken to destroy the information collected.
Browsing… not so private. Like the vast majority of browsers – if not all – Google Chrome has developed incognito mode, an option apparently allowing you to explore the Web in complete discretion. Thus, the sites visited during private browsing are not stored in the history, and other data, such as cookies, identifiers, passwords or even temporary files, are instantly erased. In other words, Google’s incognito mode leaves no trace on the device used for navigation.
Despite everything, certain entities still had a hand in collecting user data. In fact, local network administrators, Internet service providers, visited websites and even Google could record Internet users’ activity. A practice against which three users stood up, launching a class action in 2020 against the Mountain View firm. The three plaintiffs accused the company of lying to its users about the private aspect of incognito mode. “Nothing in Google’s privacy policy or the Incognito Screen leads users to believe that, while browsing privately, Google is continuing to persistently monitor them and sell their browsing history and communications to third parties” , the lawsuit explained.
After four years of legal battle, Google finally gave in. As reported by Wall Street Journal, the company agreed to an agreement, which was filed on Monday 1er April in a San Francisco court, according to which she must “delete and/or [de] remediate billions of data records“. “This agreement is a historic milestone because it requires dominant technology companies to be honest in their disclosures to users about how they collect and use user data, and to delete the data collected in this way “, can we read in the document. However, this agreement still remains particularly vague. And for good reason: we do not know if it only concerns data already collected or if it plans to apply to future data.
For its part, Google is committed to reworking “immediately” the private browsing mode warning and explanation page. In a future update, a note to “inform users [que le mode incognito] collection of private browsing data “ will be integrated. Finally, the Mountain View firm will have to block third-party cookies by default for a period of five years on its function. “Google will collect less data from users’ private browsing sessions” and it will “make less money from that data,” concluded the plaintiffs’ lawyers.